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The unsung heroes of your community’s police force are its capable K-9 unit. These talented pooches can serve alongside a police force for upwards of a decade. As any pet owner knows, one of the hardest things in life is saying goodbye to your best friend. Police in West Deptford, New Jersey had to do just that late last week. Noted police dog Judge, who retired from active service in 2013, was given a hero’s farewell as he was walked into the vet’s office to be put down:

A World-Weary Puppy In Antarctica, Circa 1912 This poignant image (cheer up, buddy!) of a pup named "Blizzard" was taken in 1912 by Antarctic adventurer Frank Hurley, who two years later would be the photographer on Ernest Shackleton's famed Endurance Expedition. This shot is from the First Australasian Antarctic Expedition, which set out in 1911. Over a period of years, Hurley visited the frozen continent six times and came away with a trove of stirring images.

The competition was ruff, but it didn’t matter: Miss P, 4-year-old beagle extraordinaire, took down all comers at the Westminster Dog Show. “She is a princess,” handler Will Alexander told the Associated Press. But P’s royal bearing didn’t prevent her from totally humiliating all members of the species Canis lupus familiaris that dared enter Madison Square Garden to challenge her for Best in Show. Those with their eyes on the prize included a Skye terrier, a standard poodle, an English springer spaniel and a shih tzu owned by former kidnapping victim and pardoned bank robber Patty Hearst.

Just a reminder: MONDAY & TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16-17, 8PM-11PM (eastern) Monday night is LIVE ON CNBC from 8-11 PM Tuesday night is LIVE ON USA from 8-11 PM The American Kennel Club has made the Coton de Tulear (Non-Sporting Group) and the Wirehaired Vizsla (Sporting Group) eligible for competition in 2014 and they will be making their first appearance at Westminster in 2015.

Dogs can tell the difference between happy and angry human facial expressions, a study has revealed. Researchers from the University of Vienna devised an experiment where 11 dogs were trained to associate either a happy or an angry face with a food reward. In a subsequent test, the scientists showed the dogs images , either of human faces they had not seen in their training, or of just half a human face.

Using sophisticated 3D imaging to analyze several fossil skulls, a study in this week's Nature Scientific Reports found dogs emerged much more recently than previously thought. Other studies in recent years had suggested dogs evolved as early as 30,000 years ago, a period known as the late Paleolithic, when humans were hunter-gatherers. Abby Grace Drake, a biologist at Skidmore College and one of the co-authors of the latest study, said there is an abundance of evidence -- including the skulls as well as genetic and cultural evidence -- to show dogs arrived instead in the more recent period known as...

When did dogs first become domesticated? A sophisticated new 3D fossil analysis by biologists Abby Grace Drake, visiting assistant professor of biology at Skidmore, and Michael Coquerelle of the University Rey Juan Carlos contradicts the suggested domestication of dogs during the late Paleolithic era (about 30,000 years ago), and reestablishes the date of domestication to around 15,000 years ago... Whether dogs were domesticated during the Paleolithic era, when humans were hunter-gatherers, or the Neolithic era, when humans began to form permanent settlements and take up farming, is a subject of ongoing scientific debate. Original fossil finds placed dog domestication in...

Melvin appeared on the National Geographic Show “Dog Whisperer” and according to a blurb about the show Jake and Scout wandered into Leland’s yard one day. They were on the show to help with Jake, who is very protective of Leland and won’t let anyone approach him. NASA astronaut Leland Melvin with his dogs Jake and Scout. Credit: NASA.

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY (Calif.) - A third dog died Thursday after exposure to toxic algae at an East Bay park, and broken-hearted dog owners say the park district's warnings have been too little, too late. "It's this green algae that's everywhere, it's fatally toxic to dogs, "warned Katie Stone, intercepting hikers at the Lake Chabot marina Friday evening. "She was healthy as can be, I walked her about five miles every day, " Stone says sadly, showing a snapshot of her five year old chocolate Labrador, Josie. "It's completely unbelievable, it was like a nightmare, like when am I going...

MOUNT PLEASANT, SC (WMBF) - A Lowcountry woman got quite the surprise when her Boston Terrier began nursing orphan kittens. Shannon Williams said her daughter found the litter of kittens in the woods behind their home in Mount Pleasant. After bringing the litter inside, Memory, her 5-year-old Boston Terrier, began nurturing and cuddling with the days-old kittens. “We laid the kittens on a dog bed, and [Memory] cuddled with them,” Williams recalled. Meanwhile, Williams went to the pet supply store for milk replacement. She said she didn't need the supplement long, “One week later, [Memory's] milk came in.” Memory had...

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10151500237966149 Priceless

Subject: Fwd: Muslims at WW II Cemetery Muslims being Muslims. This is the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Benghazi. These are British and other Commonwealth war graves, many are Australian of men killed in the desert war against the Italians and the German Afrika Korps. Every time a joke and or cartoon is made about the Koran, the whole world turns upside down and we are called racists. On the other hand, they appear to do whatever they like and no one says anything...and the majority of people remain silent. See this video whilst it's available and before it's removed...

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has gone to the dogs. Well, at least its rugs have. [snip]

So why are Labrador retrievers, Jack Russell terriers, and Staffordshire bull terriers the leading breeds? The popularity of these dogs is down to the fact they are "wonderfully loyal, easily-trained breeds, suitable for single owners, couples or families", said Kennel Club secretary Caroline Kisko. But the dog map shows while Labradors are more popular in rural areas, it is Staffies that are favoured in big cities. "Labradors are very popular working dogs and are equally as happy spending a day out in the field or in the woods as they are curled up on the sofa with their family," said...

A black Labrador named Eclipse just wants to get to the dog park. So if her owner takes too long finishing his cigarette, and their bus arrives, she climbs aboard solo and rides to her stop – to the delight of fellow Seattle bus passengers. KOMO-TV reports that local radio host Miles Montgomery was amazed to see the pooch get off the bus, without an owner, at a dog park last week. The dog and her owner, Jeff Young, live right near a bus stop. In Young’s words, “She’s a bus-riding, sidewalk-walking dog.” Young says his dog sometimes gets on...

It’s been a while since I’ve thought about Sarah Palin, except for the increasingly rare instances where someone says, “You know, with those glasses and that square jaw you look a lot like ...” The ex-Alaska governor/GOP veep candidate/Fox News commentator has fallen off of my radar screen, even though I have absolutely nothing against her and am flattered to be mistaken for a woman who can kill and skin a moose. But every now and then, Sarah re-emerges as a cultural lightning rod, someone whose simple existence still drives feminists to bitter tears and the men who want to...

A dog was found abandoned at a Scottish train station next to a suitcase filled with it's belongings and now the local animal welfare charity are looking for tips into who is the neglectful owner. The dog, a male shar-pei named Kai, was found sitting with a leash attached to a banister at the Ayr railway station on Jan. 2, according to the Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "Kai is around two to three years old and is a lovely dog with a nice nature," Scottish SPCA Inspector Stewart Taylor said in the group's release. The group...

A Native American man found dead in a New Mexico field last week near the Navajo Nation reservation may have been mauled by a pack of as many as 10 dogs, police said on Monday. Gallup Police Department spokesman Rick White said the man, who did not have identification on him but appeared to be in his mid-40s, was found by a passer-by. “We do not have a definitive cause of death yet but it appears he was attacked by dogs,” White said, although he could not give a precise cause of death. “There definitely were defense wounds from dog...

Of course, Mohammed did not like dogs. The Hadith and other sources record his distaste at their “filth” and even the notion that a dog walking in front of a Muslim praying negates the effect of those prayers. He even called for killing them..... None of the sources I found in a cursory bit of research mentioned what seemed to me to be another reason why Mohammed didn’t like dogs: he had been a caravan raider, and dogs have always (and still do) act as guardians against thieves.

“Nobody can fully understand the meaning of love unless he’s owned a dog. He can show you more affection with one flick of his tail than a man can gather through a lifetime of handshakes.” Gene Hill, author of “The Dog Man.” >At first glance, if it were not for its decrepit, arthritis-consumed back legs, one may not immediately recognize that a handsome old dog named Mo spent most of its years living under less-than-ideal conditions – before receiving affection, happiness and hope in its final days.< >For the first time in its 14 years on earth, the mixed breed...